Tea Party Sharing
Dear Friends,
After I spoke at a church, the pastor shared with me: “There are several people in our church who are of
the somewhat militaristic and of tea party persuasions, so I was a bit anxious about what response you
would get when you talk about peace. I was glad to see how well you were received. I did not hear one
complaint. I felt you opened our eyes to a new world; you gently but deeply challenged us in good ways.”
After my presentation at the Nazarene Church in Princeton, IL, Laura Root, the pastor, spent a good
five minutes telling the congregation how much she appreciated my talk. I than received many sincere
comments of thanks and over $100 from individuals to support my work.
At another talk, one of the attendees, a college professor, told me: “I really debated whether I should
come to your presentation tonight because one of my students, who is involved in CPT, accused me and
other teachers of being off the wall because of our political views. He even got on the internet and did it
publicly. So I feared that you might be like that.” I responded, “It is a real challenge to be a peacemaker
as it is so easy to slip back into that wrong thinking and be unfairly judgmental and think everyone else
is wrong. I have had my own journey that took me through this stage too. One of the hardest things for
peacemakers is to be peaceful.” The teacher afterwards, said “I would like to invite you to speak to my
classes some time.”
I gave four presentations this week at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. Students asked a lot of
good questions and the college is beginning to revive its peace and religion department. None of the
students had heard of CPT before, so I felt that the presentations were timely.
I’m leaving for Bogota, Colombia, on April 16th and will return to Chicago on June 8th. I plan to spend time
in Bogota, Barranca, Bucaramango, Cali, Sincelejo, and Baranquilla.
Say a prayer that my sharing there would be hopeful and encouraging to all and be a part of bringing
peace and justice to Colombia. Also, I am going to have to walk quite a bit in Colombia, so please pray
that my injured knee would heal.
Shalom,
Jim
April 16, 2012
Dear Friends, Fear and the Corona Virus In some self-reflection I have come to see that I have been unconsciously enveloped in a fear over the coronavirus pandemic. I feel paralyzed and hopeless. I noticed I feel I just have to turn the radio on to keep up on what is happening. Each time I hear more figures on how it is getting worse everywhere in the world, it fills my mind, the focus of much of what I think about. When I came to see this was happening, I noticed I wanted to just turn on the radio, and it was and is hard to turn it off. Just about everything on the radio was related to the virus. In reflecting I realized this subconscious fear permeated me. This fear was not healthy. It was creating anxiousness and anxiety, and anything but peace and contentment. This fear was what I needed to get rid of. From a Dr. Bruce Lipton...
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